redjam

First of all, as I made clear, the 1.4km is an estimate. It might be more or less. Mick Mac - I do sympathise, and I know how hugely stressful it is if you're 'borderline'. We were borderline for Charter 1 so I do understand your concerns and have been through those awful conversations (do we move or not, etc). But to go through your solutions: 1) Even if some lucky children are in both catchment areas, they can only take one place. And ironically Charter 2 is actually trying to help this by moving the admission point as far away from Charter 1 as possible. 2) I'm not sure I quite understand this - are you saying everyone within the catchment for Charter 1 must be forced to take up a place there?! Er? 3) As the post from Charter above makes clear, a nodal point off-site is not gonna happen folks. We need to get over it. The original Charter bid has never proposed this, and those of us who supported the bid did so knowing that they had always stated it was 'as the crow flies' from the school. So if people want to knock themselves out fighting about 100 yards to the north or east, by all means go ahead (and I don't mean to sound flippant as I do realise this makes a big difference to those on the edges of East Dulwich). But in the end that comes down to whether you think the kids at the fringes of East Dulwich 'deserve' to get a space more than the kids at the fringes of South Camberwell. I don't see why they do, myself. Either way, I suspect people will be surprised by how far the catchment will go in the first few years until the school is established.

kristymac1 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > But I'd like to see a > proper consultation considering the views of > everyone with an equal opportunity to respond and > any data gathered during the whole process - > that's just fair isn't it? Um, but that's exactly what they're doing. How is it unfair? And from what I've seen of some of the emails and letters flying round my school recently, there seems to be a lot of whipping up fear and hysteria from both sides...

It is ironic that amongst the name-calling, accusations and semi-hysterical posts by some people on here, no one appears to have noticed the update from Liz Brown from the Charter School Trust (posted at 9pm by Derek_Hill above). This makes it clear that no off-site nodal point has ever been proposed by Charter so, we can infer, is never likely to happen. So everyone is coming to blows over a distance of, what, say 100 metres? I am honestly baffled by it all. It is doubly ironic that this thread has descended into a slanging match again when it started as a call for unity. I went to a concert at the Royal Festival Hall tonight where hundreds of primary-school children from all over Southwark were dancing and singing their hearts out, all working together irrespective of which area they came from. It was truly uplifting. I think we could all learn a bit of a lesson from them. Let's all just remember how lucky we are that this school is coming at all and get a little perspective. It will benefit everyone, even those whose children don't get in directly. I confidently predict most kids in the East Dulwich postcode who want to get in will do so, going by Charter's own estimate (they have said - v. rough estimate, obviously - they expect the catchment to extend 1.4km either side of the site). So will most kids in South Camberwell. In a year's time, everyone is going to be wondering what on earth this fuss was all about.

I love that post, sillywoman! Quite agree.

James Barber Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > do we have any website design experts who could > give DMC an hour or two of their time to help DMC > make the DMC website clearer? You're kidding, right? A business with over 10,000 registered users and all the profit streams that come their way should be able to get their act together to provide a decent working website without relying on their own patients to volunteer their time to help them with their IT issues!

The problem with that is that, as was clear from the meeting and the debate on here, there is no consensus as to what the 'right' answer is, so it would be very hard for councillors to speak on behalf of their ward when their wards are so divided. And as a side note, it feels harsh to criticise James Barber when he was the one who got this all off the ground in the first place and has clearly devoted hundreds of hours to the project. And he may well have gone to one of the other two meetings, for all we know. What I hope is that Charter makes the consultation's results public and makes a decision as quickly as possible (which is what they said they'd do) so we can draw a line under this debate and move on. This has to be a truly democratic process and it dismays me to hear that some schools are trying to manipulate the outcome of the consultation by directing their parents as to what to write (if that is indeed true). Honestly, I wouldn't be on that Charter board for love nor money. They are trying to do a good thing for the community as a whole and they are faced with a roomful of entitled and hostile parents who are giving them grief because the admissions process is not designed solely to their own personal benefit. I for one am very grateful they're plugging away with it; it sounds ilke the very definition of a thankless job. But let's allow the consultation process to speak for itself and then work together to all get behind the school.

I was at the meeting too. Feelings running very high, and frankly I was embarrassed about some of the behaviour of the parents in the room - people shouting over each other, not listening to the answers, noisily insisting on having their questions heard even though they'd run out of time. Like the OP I am saddened by the divisiveness in all this and wish everyone could just take a step back from their own personal positions and see the bigger picture. One of the saddest comments I heard was one woman asking angrily, 'Why should I support this school if I don't even know if my child will get in?'* To me that's absolutely the wrong way to look at this. My feeling is: it's 240 new school places for the area, surely that's good for everyone even if my child personally doesn't get in? Why WOULDN'T you support that? And anyway, it will free up 240 places in other local schools so of course it will still benefit your child indirectly, even if they don't get in themselves. I have to say I thought the Charter panel were excellent, all of them, and handled what was clearly a difficult meeting very well. Whatever the outcome of the consultation, I really hope that everyone will start pulling together more and get behind what is going to be a great new school. * This was in reference to the Charter panel encouraging us to tick the box in the consultation to say that you approve of the school being funded by the DFE, which is crucial to the new school opening.

But I'm not sure what stats could possibly help us here. The Nunhead contingent might be able to prove they have the greatest need in terms of lack of school choices close by. The East Dulwich contingent would say, well, the free school idea was set up mainly by East Dulwich parents so therefore everyone with an SE22 postcode should be guaranteed a place. The South Camberwell contingent would say, hang on, that's not fair, we live right by the site and you're telling us we can't send our kids there? And so it would go on, with everyone claiming they have some kind of right that others don't have. It's not shutting down debate to say that this would open up a massive can of worms. It WOULD open up a massive can of worms. Which is why a straightforward site-distance-based admissions system is the fairest one. And as rightlight and others have said, we can expect the catchment of the new school to be bigger than some of the scaremongering figures that have quoted on here, so most of us within a reasonable distance should get in anyway. And for those that don't, it should ease the pressure on other local schools.

But colabottle, as soon as you start arguing for sticking nodal points away from the position of the actual school, that's exactly when you're going to get different communities jostling for position and arguing their need is greater than other's. How can CSED possibly pick their way through that without being accused of bias one way or another? That's precisely why I think a simple distance-based admission process measured from one point on the site is the fairest solution. There will be winners and losers however this plays out, unfortunately. But I don't see how they can do it any other way without causing massive strife. Completely agree with LondonMix and nicetomeetyou's posts above.

Hmm. I just had an automatic text from them re my daughter's swimming lesson this afternoon saying: 'Pool temperature lower than usual tonight and there is currently no hot water. Lessons are on as usual, apologies for any inconvenience caused.' So doesn't sound like it's actually closed now...

Wow, I love the poison exhibition idea, njc97. I've just googled it and it says it features 'live animals'. The mind boggles...

They are due to have an inspection before the end of this term - you're right, they have to have it within two years of the previous one and if memory serves the previous inspection was right at the beginning of September 2013. For understandable reasons the school are keen to have another as soon as possible as they contested the last one, so it's a shame they've been made to wait the full two years. They had two externally adjudicated 'Teaching and Learning Reviews' in January and September last year, which both found the school to be 'good or better'. The reports are up on the school's website.

Ooh, I love the look of DalEast's work. Well done and thank you Ingrid for brightening up our local community - we love all the street art in our family.

We're going to give the 'In With the Spiders' experience a go at London Zoo this half term: http://www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo/exhibits/in-with-the-spiders Well, when I say 'we' I don't mean me, obviously...

Second what Monkey says. My kids are at a different school but they don't do swimming until Year 3. Nor do they do karate, knitting (!) or music lessons in school (there is a dedicated music teacher but they don't have individual instrument lessons - though I know that some schools do offer this). Some things - like handwriting and PE - are part of all schools' curriculum and I can't believe they won't cover those things in their normal school day. 'Free play' is standard for Reception children. My kids have learnt a bit of French at their school, but not much. So yes, I'd be concerned about the availability of the premises and the lack of computers, but it doesn't sound like it's all bad. Does sound like you might be happier going private though!

This is a really interesting question. I had piano lessons as a child and gave up when I wanted to, pretty much - I don't remember my parents trying to persuade me to carry on. Looking back, I'm very grateful I was given the chance to learn but I don't hold it against my parents that they didn't force me to continue. I was a teenager when I stopped and my poor parents had enough to argue with me about by then. I had a break of some twenty years where I didn't have a piano, which I do regret, though I'm now sneakily relearning it again by practising my seven-year-old's pieces after she's gone to bed! I guess my own perspective, then, would be to try to persuade them to continue as long as you're able (i.e. when they are smaller and more malleable) but accept that eventually it's up to the child themselves, especially as they get older. I've found that my older child got a new lease of life with her guitar practice when she started doing grades, and we've also recently switched teachers - nothing wrong with our old one but after nearly four years she needed a fresh approach. Both things seem to have kept her keen. Is there also some kind of school band your daughters could join, nunheadmum? How old are they?

Just had Fernando back to get stuck into our monster ivy overgrowth - he worked like a Trojan all day and has done a great job clearing a border for us. Very happy to recommend him. Lovely polite chap, v. reasonably priced and clears everything up after him as he goes along. SunnyBee - his mobile is 07946 757938.

So, we've just had the wonderful Fernando Pinto round - see the business/trades section - clearing out an area in our garden which was covered with a thick, long-established layer of ivy ground cover. He's dug it out as best he can but there are some giant roots down there coming from under our neighbour's fence so I'm wary about improving the soil in this section and planting new flowers until I'm sure the ivy has been completely eradicated. Fernando suggested I put some weedkiller down - is that the best/only solution? Is there a method that doesn't use herbicides? If we have to go down that route, is it safe for pets (we have a cat)? If anyone is green-fingered out there and can give a gardening newbie some advice, I'd be v grateful.

I'd second all the above. My kids love it. One of the ladies who runs it used to be the music teacher at Heber and she is lovely - full of energy and ideas and enthusiasm (and a fab music teacher to boot). I wish it were less expensive but I do think it's more professionally run and fun than other holiday clubs. We tried a local rival art club over Easter and both my kids came home in a black mood begging me to send them back to Nimble Arts next time. So looks like I'll have to keep swallowing the cost, sigh...

I rather suspect that the catchment area will be much wider than people think in the first few years, for three reasons: 1) Many families won't want to send their kids to a brand-new school, which will have no permanent buildings for the first couple of years at least. 2) Many families who live within the catchment will take up sibling places in other schools from their older children. 3) There will be no sibling places taken up in the new school so all 240 places will be free (compare that to Charter 1 this year, which had a huge number of places already taken up by siblings - 70 out of 180, I believe). Combined, these three things will make a difference. And remember, those extra 240 places will free up more space in other co-ed schools like Kingsdale. Anyway, back to the head - very pleased he's on board, makes it all seem more real somehow. I assume it's the same Alex Crossman who wrote a series of blogs for the Guardian a few years back on being a fast-track trainee who'd moved from another industry (see here: http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2011/oct/12/city-banker-teacher-career-teaching-resources). Sounds like a good chap.

Signed. Hate to see kids' playing fields gobbled up by greedy developers.

I agree these boards are unsightly and unnecessary if they're kept up for ages. BUT - can I just put in a plea for understanding when it comes to having boards up advertising school events? Unless you've been living under a rock you'll realise how much state school budgets have been slashed in recent years (my kids' school maintenance budget has been cut from c. ?40k to ?8k), so the money raised via estate agent advertising boards is crucial - it's the single biggest money-spinner for our school's PTA. The boards stay up for a short time only, three weeks for our school. And it is a way for estate agents to actively support their local community: it's not just schools but churches and community groups that can benefit from these sponsorship deals. So please think twice before pulling down any sponsored boards, guys...

Thank you both. The thought of removing the radiators ourselves is somewhat terrifying (neither my husband nor I are remotely DIY-minded) but the fact we could even do it ourselves, i.e. without needing a Corgi plumber, is making me feel like it's probably less of a big deal than I was worrying about. Thanks for the reassurance!

We?ve got some rather unattractive 1970s radiators on our ground floor that we are thinking of changing. At the moment we?ve got three small ones round the bay window in the front of our living room and an unnecessarily massive one in our hall; we?d like to change to one chunky Victorian-style one in the front of the bay (getting rid of other two on either side) and a smaller one in the hall. Has anyone done such a thing themselves? We?ve found some nice replica radiators on a website but we had some questions: 1) Will one cast-iron or aluminium two-column radiator (about 40cm high by 1 metre wide) at the front of the bay be warm enough to heat the front room? It?s a typical ED Victorian house with the front and back rooms knocked through, and the back of the room has another medium-sized radiator beneath the back window. 2) When changing/removing radiators, do all the floorboards have to be taken up? Is this a nightmare? We need to resand and revarnish our floorboards anyway so we don?t mind if they get a bit damaged (they are quite knackered anyway) but I?m nervous about messing around with them too much. Presumably any holes from old pipes can get easily refilled but is it a problem to take up the boards completely? 3) We also want to get someone to redecorate the downstairs (redo the peeling lining paper and paint) and it would make sense for them to the bit behind the wall when we remove the radiators, but the logistics of this are making my head spin. How do you coordinate a plumber and a decorator to turn up at the same time and work together? I find it?s hard enough to get one person out at the time you ask them to, let alone two? We have a good decorator that we?d like to use so is it easiest if we ask him to recommend a plumber? Then get someone else out to patch up the floor afterwards? Sorry to sound so clueless but any advice anyone can give would be appreciated ? even if it?s to say, no, don?t do it, you?re opening up a can of worms (which is what I?m nervous about!). Thanks in advance.

Eh? Why will it only extend one way from the overlap and not the other? I don't know where you live, MsMaz, but obviously I do take your point that if you were directly marketed by Charter and you have no hope of getting into the new school then that's tough and I can see that's extremely annoying. However, how do you know you won't get in? We don't know yet how far the catchment area will extend; it entirely depends on yearly demand (which one would expect to be lower in the first few years as kids take up sibling places or decide they prefer an established school).